A murder trialthat starts on Monday (Oct 17) has led to Australian distributor Roadshowwithdrawing home-grown horror flick Wolf Creek from some cinema screens at the requestof the Director of Public Prosecutions.

The film will nolonger be shown in the Northern Territory from November 3 but will be releasedeverywhere else in Australia as planned.

Bradley JohnMurdoch, a truck driver in his 40s, is facing murder and abduction charges inthe Northern Territory Supreme Court in Darwin over an incident in July 2001 inwhich British tourist Peter Falconio disappeared. His body was never found. Hisgirlfriend of the time, Joanne Lees, was abducted but escaped.

The trial judgewas apparently concerned that Wolf Creek might disrupt the trial. Wolf Creekfeatures international travellers and is set on an isolated stretch of highwayin outback Australia, just like the case being heard, but the film is based ona number of brutal crimes by lone serial killers.

As director GregMcLean says, theevil man in his film "is the bastard child of all thesemen and their hideous crimes".His depiction reverses the cliche of theloveable Australian bushman, exemplified on film by Crocodile Dundee and crocodile man Steve Irwin.

McLean and mostof Wolf Creek's key creators start shooting their own crocodile film, Rogue, early next month thanks to finance fromthe Weinstein Co, which bought the rights to the first film in many keyterritories.

The Weinstein Cohave pushed the US release of Wolf Creek from November to January 6 according to wire services.